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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
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Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Lieutenant Commander J. Beatrice Bowman, Nurse Corps, U.S. Navy, (1881-1971)

Josephine Beatrice Bowman was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on 19 December 1881. She graduated from nurses' training at the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1904 and soon enrolled with the American Red Cross Nursing Service. In the spring of 1908, Miss Bowman took part in the first Red Cross disaster relief operation after a tornado caused extensive damage around Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Later that year, she joined the newly-established U.S. Navy Nurse Corps as one of its first twenty members. She was promoted to Chief Nurse in 1911.

Chief Nurse Bowman temporarily left the Navy in October 1914 and spent the next several months as a Red Cross nurse caring for war casualties in Great Britain. She returned to the Navy in May 1915. After the U.S. entered World War I, she became Chief Nurse at the Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, Illinois, and guided its nursing staff during that facility's great expansion to meet the needs of war and the 1918-19 influenza epidemic.

In 1919, Chief Nurse Bowman led the first contingent of Navy Nurses assigned to the hospital ship USS Relief (AH-1), the first Navy women to serve at sea. She became Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps in December 1922 and held that position for over twelve years, until her retirement at the beginning of 1935. Following her departure from active duty, she made her home in Pennsylvania and stayed active in national and local nursing affairs. When Navy Nurses were included in the Navy's ranking system, she received the retirement rank of Lieutenant Commander in recognition of her service as Nurse Corps' Superintendent. Lieutenant Commander J. Beatrice Bowman died on 3 January 1971.

This page features images of J. Beatrice Bowman.

For additional views of and related to J. Beatrice Bowman, taken during the early years of her Navy Nurse Corps service, see: J. Beatrice Bowman Photo Album, circa 1908-1915.

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 80-G-1037200 Josephine Beatrice Bowman, (NC) USN Portrait photograph, taken in uniform. She was the third Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, from 1 December 1922 to 1 January 1935. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 85KB; 590 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: NH 52960 "The Sacred Twenty" Group photograph of the first twenty Navy Nurses, appointed in 1908. Taken at the Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C., circa October 1908. They are identified in Photo # NH 52960 (Complete Caption). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 575 pixels
Photo #: NH 52962 Navy Nurses of the World War I period Miss Bowman is at left (presumably Josephine Beatrice Bowman, who became Superindentent of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1922). Courtesy of the Nursing Division, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, September 1962. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 86KB; 590 x 765 pixels
Photo #: NH 97225 Chief Nurse J. Beatrice Bowman, USN Engaged in office work, possibly during the middle "Teens" or early 1920s. The two stripes on her ward cap indicate that she was serving as the Navy's Assistant Superintendent of Nurses at the time. Collection of Lieutenant Commander J. Beatrice Bowman, USN(NC), from her 1908-ca.1915 photo album, lot # S-581, page 97. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 80KB; 510 x 765 pixels
Photo #: NH 53047 USS Relief (AH-1) Some of her nursing staff, March 1921. Principal Chief Nurse J. Beatrice Bowman is standing in the center, 4th from right. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 590 pixels
Photo #: NH 95294 Attendees at a reception for Dame Maud McCarthy, Washington, D.C., 14 March 1924 Photographed following the reception. Those present are (in front, left to right): Mrs. Clara G. Noyes, Chairman, Red Cross Nursing Service; and Dame Maud McCarthy, Matron-in-Chief, British Territorial Nursing Service. Those standing in the rear are (from left to right): J. Beatrice Bowman, Superintendent, U.S. Navy Nurse Corps; Mrs. Mary A. Hickey, Nursing Service, Veterans Bureau; Mabel Boardman, Secretary, American Red Cross; Lucy Minnegrode, Superintendent, Public Health Nursing Service; Mrs. Eliott Wadsworth, Wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; and Major Julia Stimpson, Superintendent, U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Collection of Lieutenant Commander J. Beatrice Bowman, USN(NC). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 600 pixels

For additional views of and related to J. Beatrice Bowman, taken during the early years of her Navy Nurse Corps service, see: J. Beatrice Bowman Photo Album, circa 1908-1915.

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Images added 6 February 1999